Feeling quite ambitious for a Saturday, I went out early yesterday morning and bought a small Christmas tree. This is significant only because I have never bought one before. Jen and I have never had one either and so it seemed like a good year to do it. It has been a relatively rough year so ending it with a little ceremony seemed prudent.
A small Christmas tree for my small apartment
I then aspired to make Beef Bourguignon a la Julia Child so I spent the next four hours patting, braising, basting, and simmering beef and came up with this:
Beef Bourguignon, Le Creuset and all things French
All in all, a good day. We even experienced our first (slight) snowfall of the year. Really just a mild dusting but there is nothing like a December snow to spark the imagination. It reminded me of this snowfall in Seodaemun, Seoul, back in 2003. Still one of the best nights of my life, sitting there in my apartment with Jen, watching the snow fall and feeling totally content and safe. Brilliant. We eventually went out for a walk in the snow and that was wonderful as well. I miss that walk from Seodaemun(서대문) to Gwanghwamun(광화문).
My name is Michael Sean Gallagher. I am a Lecturer in Digital Education at the Centre for Research in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh. I am Co-Founder and Director of Panoply Digital, a consultancy dedicated to ICT and mobile for development (M4D); we have worked with USAID, GSMA, UN Habitat, Cambridge University and more on education and development projects. I was a researcher on the Near Futures Teaching project, a project that explores how teaching at The University of Edinburgh unfold over the coming decades, as technology, social trends, patterns of mobility, new methods and new media continue to shift what it means to be at university. Previously, I was the Research Associate on the NERC, ESRC, and AHRC Global Challenges Research Fund sponsored GCRF Research for Emergency Aftershock Forecasting (REAR) project. I was an Assistant Professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (한국외국어대학교) in Seoul, Korea. I have also completed a doctorate at University College London (formerly the independent Institute of Education, University of London) on mobile learning in the humanities in Korea.
